I hope this collection of essays can provide some practical ideas, strategies, lessons and discussion starters for public servants across Australia and the world, and I look forward to continuing to learn, contribute to and support the public sector reforms and evolutions that are so urgently needed to support the communities we all serve.
Scott Hamilton & Stuart Kells give us an entertaining as well as interesting look back at Australia's bipartisan history of law & order. Featuring an interview with former NSW MP and shadow attorney general Mr Andrew Tink.
Everybody tells you they are somewhere on the journey towards the holy grail of digital transformation. But sometimes it feels like we’re all stuck in the departure lounge while the airline gives us another lame excuse for delays. Will we ever get to our destination?
Phil Gaetjens' key messages for the Australian Public Service included flagging further consolidation of corporate functions; cross-portfolio taskforces to solve wicked problems; and increased data sharing to improve services and rebuild trust.
Coordinating a coherent seamless departmental response in a mega organisation means getting people out of their silos and thinking beyond their usual remit. It can’t just happen around the table at departmental executive meetings — senior people with flexible policy brains, diplomatic skills and a capacity to walk effortlessly on eggshells are needed to make the process organic at lower levels.
After a long period of consultation around upcoming federal data-sharing and release reforms, questions about consent and commercial use remain the most controversial. While a lot of researchers and policy-makers are keen to unlock latent value in the data held by the Australian Public Service, the need to maintain social license looms large.
The good news is our road toll is reducing. The bad news is that many young drivers are still engaging in risky driving practices – and forming bad habits — at the very start of their driving careers. This is one of the latest findings from Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.
PISA is out and continues to hit the headlines. Although Australia has, again, slipped in international rankings, this is a much more complex story than just wanting to climb the PISA ladder.
Markets structures are an important instrument in the success of the NDIS. It is through diverse and robust disability markets that participants can exercise choice and control, thereby delivering on many of the goals of the scheme. Yet we are seeing markets emerge with insufficient providers or capacity to meet demand and ensure competition takes place.
Attempts to support more effective coordination across government departments is not a new concept, and stories of failed attempts or at least only partial success tend to dominate. One of the key reasons for this appears to be the fact that government bureaucracies lack the “supporting architecture” needed to support joined-up-working. Thea Snow examines the success stories and sincere attempts of cross-government collaboration around the world.
Both the Australian and the UK governments have institutionalised limitations that mean policy and procurement simply do not join up, and there are currently no structural or process bridges in place to even look at how that can be made to happen. That's why any digital-transformational strategy needs a broad range of enablers that should come together in a cohesive industrial strategy, says Elizabeth Vega.
When I was the chief of military justice for the California National Guard, I tried dozens of courts-martials. I could usually get soldiers to level with me, even when telling the truth meant revealing the malfeasance of friends or superiors. They had confidence that they would be safe if they did the right thing.
Pedantry is alluring. Especially if one gets some aesthetic satisfaction from the way words are used.
I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, not to hate them, but to understand them — Baruch Spinoza, Tractatus Politicus, 1676 The burden of unbounded knowledge weighs heavily on those with open minds. Those trapped within a specific moral code express righteous indignation that their beliefs should be […]
Miriam Vogel developed and led implicit bias training for federal law enforcement while at the United States Department of Justice. Tackling defensiveness is an important part of successful implicit bias training, she says. It’s really helpful to start by defusing that defensiveness and making it clear that this is a human condition, it doesn’t make you an evil person, it makes us human.
